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[Hayden Scott-Baron]

About the ghost, I kinda like the idea but I don't really like the implementation. If there was a 'ghost' gauge (like the air in Mr Driller), then I would have a better idea of what was coming, or some other form of clue. Bubble Bobble managed this with a 'hurry up' message after a while and faster music, and then a 'dun dun dun' music before Baron Von Blubba. I tried to bomb the ghost to kill or stun it, but it doesn't effect it, which I found disappointing.

B+F+R are weird button allocations for Bomb, Flare and Rope. ASD would be my first pick.... or indeed, a joypad option

I find it weird that I am requesting more buttons as well, as I'm generally a stickler for less buttons, and two buttons is my preferred design mentality. Not sure what that says.

As for running, I think double tap would be better too.

I don't mind difficulty in games, but right now the controls are what I'm fighting with more than the enemies.

[Devlin]

I found that once I got used to the controls, I managed to have a huge skill increase.

I noticed that one cannot hold the button down to increase the amount of money you give Tunnel Man.

Ghost meter or ghost timer YES.

[Melly]

The ghost is the bane of Spelunky players!

Really digging the game, nice job, but I have to ask, does an item found in a locked check do anything? I found an Eye of some sort, couldn't figure out how to use it or anything, and the readme is of no assistance. I'd appreciate the answer.

Explore and experiment, young padawan.

[Gainsworthy]

I kinda like the ghost. Keeps me scared. I think the time limit gives you plenty of time to explore, whilst stopping you from trying anything too... sneaky. I like games that hold something from you. Maybe if you were followed by a little ghost a few seconds before the Big One showed? Or a sound played to warm you up to it?

Also, I noticed someone said "Remove Down-to-Run". Please, please, for the love of whatever lurks in those caves, keep it in. I was just coming to post what an inspired control decision it was. Never seen it before, and now that I think of it, I don't know why.

Also, Bug![?]

I purchased a nice, new crossbow for the exorbitant sum of $10,000 from a rather sleazy salesman I didn't catch the name of. I strode out of the store, inspecting the workmanship, and the shop dis-appeared from my field of view. A "Stop, Thief!" was yelled from the direction of the dealer. I had to turn around, due to a dead end, and was greeted with both someone keen to soil my reputation AND fill me full of lead.

Needless to say I was most displeased.


Anyway, loving the exploration to pieces. So many new things, all just waiting to kill me. Difficult, but rewarding. More really is more.

[kyn]

How about Easy/Normal/Hard modes? As in, in easy mode there's no ghost (or the spawn-time is increased), normal mode it's just like how it is now, and hard mode the spawn-time for the ghost is decreased. This way everyone's happy, right?

I know removing the ghost destroys Derek's original vision of how the game should work, but goddamn I hate that damned ghost, and I really love exploring, something that the ghost is taking away from me.

[Corpus]

I resent that Andy, you're obviously implying that people are saying the game is great because it's Derek's game, whatever that means

Andy, Super Joe was several months ahead of you and for that he won the honour of having his name in the credits.

All you're going to get is some time in the tiger pit.

I wasn't saying anything like that  Jesus christ. It's a fun game. It's a good game, but things could be better. Haven't you ever heard of constructive criticism. I wasn't flaming the game, or Derek, in any way, shape, or form. It's a good game, a good concept, and is fun. But some things need to be changed. My grade still stands at C+... 

If it wasn't fun I wouldn't have played it as much as I have... holy shit. 

There is no escaping
THE TIGER PIT



But yeah, seriously, I was just pulling your leg. Didn't mean to contribute to a dramastorm...

[Bennett]

Here's the thing though: in Spelunky you're not really exploring the caves, per se, since they're generated randomly. You're exploring the possibility-space of the game. Maybe a simpler way to put it is that you're not exploring *this cave*, you're exploring *all possible caves*. You're exploring the rules of the game.

So I don't think it matters much if you're interrupted by the ghost while exploring one particular cave. You don't need to know about that particular cave, because it is gone forever once you die, never to return. 

[PaleFox]

The ghost is the bane of Spelunky players!

Really digging the game, nice job, but I have to ask, does an item found in a locked check do anything? I found an Eye of some sort, couldn't figure out how to use it or anything, and the readme is of no assistance. I'd appreciate the answer.

Explore and experiment, young padawan.

I realize figuring out what an item does is enjoyable, but I was unable to determine if it did anything at all. Was it just treasure? I didn't know. Perhaps just mention in the tutorial or readme that you can find items which help you just by being held. No need to say what they are or their effects. Then, when a new player opens a box and gets something on the top of their screen, they won't be confused by that because they'll understand what it means. I mean, look at La Mulana, not all the cartridge combos are in the manual, but it still tells you they exist.

Also, yes, having warning the ghost will appear soon, and that I should head for the exit instead of, say, for more cash, would be very useful. If you don't want to put in a guage, maybe the colors could become more and more washed out or something similar.

[Powergloved Andy]

I resent that Andy, you're obviously implying that people are saying the game is great because it's Derek's game, whatever that means

Andy, Super Joe was several months ahead of you and for that he won the honour of having his name in the credits.

All you're going to get is some time in the tiger pit.

I wasn't saying anything like that  Jesus christ. It's a fun game. It's a good game, but things could be better. Haven't you ever heard of constructive criticism. I wasn't flaming the game, or Derek, in any way, shape, or form. It's a good game, a good concept, and is fun. But some things need to be changed. My grade still stands at C+... 

If it wasn't fun I wouldn't have played it as much as I have... holy shit. 

There is no escaping
THE TIGER PIT



But yeah, seriously, I was just pulling your leg. Didn't mean to contribute to a dramastorm...

 :D I love you Corpus.


Actually, I've been playing it a lot, and I've gotten really used to the controls. I bump the grade up to an A- now. =X You just have to give it some time to let your fingers get used to it, I suppose.

[Matt Thorson]

I maintain that gamepad support would make it infinitely easier to get used to the controls, at least for me.  Especially in a platformer with so much emphasis on learning to control the character well.

Yes, I know, I can use JoyToKey or something.  But JoyToKey doesn't seem to like Vista (or maybe just my PC), and native gamepad support is just so much more seamless.

Again (for fear of pit), I love the game.  It does have some issues like Andy pointed out, but it definitely grows on you the more you play it.  Gamepad support would make it much easier for the game to grow on some of us (read: me ).

[Tanner]

YMM, have you tried xpadder?

[Derek]

What's the easiest way to implement gamepad support in GM?

[Devlin]

 
If I weren't so rusty at using GM, i'd be of more use here.

Ideally you'd start off by checking for a joystick.
so using an if statement with joystick_exists(id)[id being 1, i.e. the first gamepad] and telling the game there isn't a gamepad present so you're not wasting cycles when it comes to adding it to the movement code.(i.e. a new variable and corresponding IF statement that cuts out the joystick code if there's no stick present.)

Game Maker supports 6 axes and a POV hat(usually ending up a D-Pad) -
(x,y)left analog (joystick_xpos(id) and joystick_ypos(id) return the joystick's x/y-position.)
(z,r)right analog (see x/y commands, replace with z/r)
(u,v)third analog/triggers (same as above but, u/v)
the POV hat is controlled with one command -

joystick_pov(id) Returns the joysticks point-of view position. This is an angle between 0 and 360 degrees. 0 is forwards, 90 to the right, 180 backwards and 270 to the left. When no point-of-view direction is pressed by the user -1 is returned.

It also supports up to 32 buttons, also controlled by one command - joystick_check_button(id,btn) id being 1 or 2(you'd assume 1 here as player 1 should use the often only joystick attached to the machine.) and btn being the corresponding button.
i.e. The A button on an X360 pad attached to a Windows machine is button 1(could possibly be 0).

I hope this is the slightest bit of help.

EDIT: just making stuff more readable but I suck at giving help so sorry if this is totally unreadable or hard to understand.

[Eclipse]

oh my god.

i love oldskool platformers, i love derek's art and I FREAKING LOVE ROGUELIKES.
 

Derek this is simply amazing, thank you

[Powergloved Andy]

   

[Eclipse]

   

the first time i played it i died in the same manner, only with a bomb 

[Cheater‽]

I did that way too, but not in the tutorial. I did it in the air though.

[Eclipse]

It's particularly important with roguelikes and games like Spelunky, where a lot of the hook is the exploration.

That's why I hate the ghost!

yes. if there's a thing i would gladly cut off this game is that damn ghost.

edit:
sometimes it crashes while taking an object... but i'm still not able to replicate it.
I've never used GML but seeing that


seems that "holdItem" is null so it crashes while trying to use "type", so maybe you should do a check before that row using something like if (holdItem) or sorta... ( if you can do that sort of operations in gml!)

[Matt Thorson]

What's the easiest way to implement gamepad support in GM?

The biggest hurdle is knowing when a button or direction is pressed (rather than held).  As Devlin pointed out, there are plenty of functions for checking whether a gamepad direction/button is currently down, but no "pressed" or "released" alternatives.

Here's what I do:

1. An object, 'obj_gamepad', which checks each step whether each button/direction is down as well as remembers the state of each button/direction from last step.  That way, if you want to know if button_jump was pressed this step, you'd check (jump_current && !jump_previous).  IE: Jump is down this step, but wasn't last step.

2. A global variable 'gamepad', which holds a reference to obj_gamepad if one exists, and the value -1 if one does not.  So somewhere at game start:

Code:

globalvar gamepad;

When the user switches to gamepad controls:

Code:

gamepad = instance_create( 0, 0, obj_gamepad );

When the user switches back to keyboard controls:

Code:

gamepad = -1;
with obj_gamepad instance_destroy();

3. Standardized controls scripts.  This is the best part.  Once you have this implemented the whole gamepad system is completely modular and you can just use these scripts in place of keyboard_check() and keyboard_check_pressed().  Example:

control_check_jump():

Code:

if (gamepad == -1)
    return keyboard_check( ord( 'Z' ) );
else
    return gamepad.jump_current;

control_check_pressed_jump():

Code:

if (gamepad == -1)
    return keyboard_check_pressed( ord( 'Z' ) );
else
    return (gamepad.jump_current && !gamepad.jump_previous);

[Devlin]

Damn, much better than mine - saying that I pulled mine out of my head, from not using GM for a whole year(I had to reinstall GM7 just to pull the help file txt out!), lol.